Back in AHI I tested the A-5. I found once you had fired the rockets, the tubes had zero affect on both acceleration and top speed.
However the tubes on P-51 and the early P-47s do lower the top speed.
I came across this info on the RM4, the German replacment A to A rocket for the WGr21 rockets we have in Aces High:
http://www.geocities.com/lastdingo/aviation/r4m.htm In 1942, the threat by well-protected B-17F bombers called for a new weapon.
because nothing else was available, WGr21 were used to disrupt the B-17F "combat box" formations from 1943 on.
That was a big and primitive 210mm rocket launched out of a tube and originally designed for ground-to-ground combat.
Its drag was so big that fighter carrying two or four of them had a big problem with the escort fighters.
Further was its precision bad (no proximity fuse) and its 40,8kg warhead by far oversized for its purpose.
At this time Fritz Heber (who also built the famous MG-synchronization in 1915 as mechanician for twittler) invented a simple rocket with a propellant chemical (Diglykol) that was in use since many years. Immidiately, 20.000 rockets were ordered, and until warīs end 10.000 or 12.000 built and delivered (Nowarra gives both numbers on one page).
It was tested on Me262A-1a by the infamous elite unit JV44 and contributed a lot to the fame of the JV44 and the Me262A-1a.
Around 60 Me262A-1a recieved each 14 R4M under each outer wing, and the Mk108 gunsight was used for this weapon, too, because of the similar ballistics. In just one sortie, 25 B-17G were killed without losses with the R4M (out of 425). But "conventional" fighters like the Fw190 had also stunning success with this weapon; a group of 24 Fw190 killed without losses 40! B-17G during a strong bomber raid in april, 1945.
Overall, Nowarra (and other authors) wrote that around 500! enemy planes were destroyed
(by just around 10.000 rockets; thatīs a ratio of at least around one per sortie because each plane had just 24 rockets!)
R 4/M : R=Rakete, 4=4kg weight, M=Minenkopf (mine warhead)
One hit was usually enough for destroying a B-17G or B-24J.
Bring the RM-4 to the Aces High 190 and 262!